MP 1,1-5,1 MacPro 3.1 Upgrade Advice for a noob

[Raoul_Duke72]

Hi all,

I’ve been using a semi-souped MP 3,1 for music production for the past 4 years. It came with Mojave. Specs as follows:
- 2x 3.2GHz quad core Intel Xeon
- 48GB 667mhz DDR2 FB-DIMM
- 256GB Mojave (10.14.4) NVME start disc
- NVIDIA GeForce gtx 680 2gb GPU

It’s successfully run light to moderately complex projects on LPX and it was <$500 in 2018, so I can’t complain a bit… She’s given me a ton of ROI. But LPXXI just dropped and I’d love to check it out. It requires Ventura.

Here’s the thing, I’m not a Mac person… heck, I’m not PC person. Just a musician. So, since I got it in 2019 I’ve been scared to mess with anything, let alone upgrading the OS.

So, I’m wondering… 1) if it’s possible to move to Ventura on this cheese grater… 2) what would it take to do it, both effort and $$s and if it is possible, which Im guessing is a long shot, 3) opinions as to whether I should… bc can and should are different things imho…

Any help would be greatly appreciated and honest feedback is always welcomed, e.g. it can be done, but not by you lol.

Cheers!

 

[avro707]

It will be very complex to upgrade to Ventura because it isn’t supported. It won’t be 100% reliable for production use.

Would you be better off just going for a newer Mac completely?

They will be much faster than what you have.

7,1 machines available cheap, USD$1899:

Apple 2019 Mac Pro 3.2GHz Intel 16-Core 96GB RAM 2TB SSD Radeon Pro W5500X

From iPowerResale.

Thst machine will run Ventura and Sonoma and Windows. Your choice how much you want to spend.


If you need even more power you can upgrade to 28 core CPU easily.

 

[Raoul_Duke72]

It will be complex to upgrade to Ventura.

Would you be better off just going for a newer Mac completely like a 6,1 and upgrading straight to the newest 12.7.5 Monterey?

You should be able to find 12 core 64GB 1TB SSD machines relatively cheap now.

They will be much faster than what you have.

Alternatively 7,1 machines available cheap, USD$1899:

Apple 2019 Mac Pro 3.2GHz Intel 16-Core 96GB RAM 2TB SSD Radeon Pro W5500X

From iPowerResale.

Thst machine will run Ventura and Sonoma and Windows. Your choice how much you want to spend.

Thanks for the quick reply man… This is what I was expecting. Found a few threads sayin they got it to work, but most of it sounded like Greek to me lol. What I did take away was it was a Herculean effort that I am neither capable of, nor interested in attempting.

So, my only other question if you’re willing: Is the 3,1 a paperweight at this point? Or is there some value left in it?

Again, if not Im good as Ive definitely gotten my money back and then some. Thanks again!

 

[Raoul_Duke72]

It will be very complex to upgrade to Ventura because it isn’t supported. It won’t be 100% reliable for production use.

Would you be better off just going for a newer Mac completely?

They will be much faster than what you have.

7,1 machines available cheap, USD$1899:

Apple 2019 Mac Pro 3.2GHz Intel 16-Core 96GB RAM 2TB SSD Radeon Pro W5500X

From iPowerResale.

Thst machine will run Ventura and Sonoma and Windows. Your choice how much you want to spend.


If you need even more power you can upgrade to 28 core CPU easily.

Would something like this work?

 

[avro707]

Would something like this work?

That won’t support Ventura. The Xeon E5 is too old. I know there is OCLP but that’s a workaround and not production stable.

Minimum 7,1 for your needs.

You could also look at iMac Pro but the 7,1 will be much better for longer term and easier to upgrade.

You need a machine that natively runs Ventura or Sonoma without workarounds. When Apple releases as OS update you can just install easily.

 

[Raoul_Duke72]

That won’t support Ventura. The Xeon E5 is too old. I know there is OCLP but that’s a workaround and not production stable.

Minimum 7,1 for your needs.

You could also look at iMac Pro but the 7,1 will be much better for longer term.

You need a machine that natively runs Ventura or Sonoma without workarounds.

Got it! 7,1 min… Thanks again man! Truly appreciate it.

 

[avro707]

There is a big topic here where we can support you on the 7,1 journey.

Buy cheap 7,1 or Studio

Nobody looks at the back......still looks sleek even in silver....;)

forums.macrumors.com

You can upgrade these machines massively if you choose:

You have 12 ram slots - depending on CPU you can go 768GB or 1.5TB if you ever need to go that far, no Mac before or now can do that. I'm only using 6 of the slots at the moment and I'm also waiting for my dual W6800 Duo GPUs to be shipped.

You stack them with massive amounts of storage as well.

 

[jmp473]

If it ain't broke don't fix it.
I've got a cMP 3,1 that works well on Catalina (thanks to dosdude1) and a cMP 5,1 that works OK on Monterey (thanks to OCLP). I often wish the cMP 5,1 on Monterey were as consistantly functional as the 3,1 on Catalina. I can't recommend upgrading to Ventura on an unsupported cMP or purchasing a machine that's not supported unless financially there is NO other option.

Your cMP 3,1 is a workhorse but I can understand your dilemma. When mine broke a few years ago it was due to a GPU boot screen issue (unflashed GTX 680) and I found a cMP 5,1 cheap on eBay which had a native GPU that would give me the boot screen and would then allow me to flash (convert from Windows to Mac) the 680 and I would be able to use that in the cMP 5,1.

I love old Macs.
It sounds like you're looking at Ventura which would be the entrance to a rabbit hole on a cMP 3,1. Where do you want to spend your time?